Published: Tuesday, June 18, 2013 at 12:12 p.m.

Last Modified: Tuesday, June 18, 2013 at 6:28 p.m.

The trial of a former bouncer accused of first-degree murder began Tuesday with a prosecutor saying the man, from a hidden spot, trained a laser on is intended victims before firing an assault-style rifle to kill one woman and injure another.

Willie Demarcus Poindexter, 24, is charged with first-degree murder and attempted first-degree murder. He is accused of shooting to death Katie Burson and wounding her friend Lashanna Bates, both 24, in the early morning hours of Aug. 11, 2011, as they stood on a Daytona Beach street.

Burson was the mother of a boy who was 7 years old at the time. Poindexter faces life in prison if convicted in the jury trial which is being presided over by Circuit Judge Frank Marriott. Burson and Bates were among a group of women who earlier had been to the Coliseum nightclub. Poindexter worked as a bouncer at the club, where another group of women had also been partying that night. When the Coliseum closed, both groups wound up at a gas station and started fighting.

Poindexter was trying to even the score after his friends lost the fight at the gas station, said prosecutor Celeste Gagne.

“The motive in this case is revenge,” Gagne said. “It's all over a fight between groups of people in which the friends of the defendant's had gotten beat up,” Gagne said.

Poindexter and another man were dropped off near the apartment where the women were shot. She said Poindexter had with him his pride and joy -- an MP-15-22, a .22-caliber, assault-style rifle. The other man had a .380-caliber pistol.

Burson, Bates and some other people were standing in front of apartments at 424 S. Keech St. just after 4 a.m. when they noticed a green light. They then heard whizzing sounds, bullets cutting through the air, Gagne said.

“This defendant Willie Poindexter shot with his rifle in a sniper-like fashion into a crowd of people, killing Katie Burson and injuring her friend Lashanna Bates,” Gagne said.

Poindexter defense attorney Ann E. Finnell said during her opening statement that Poindexter did not shoot anyone. Finnell said that when the shooting started Burson, Bates and her group were outside talking to a pair of drug dealers from whom someone had bought marijuana.

She said perhaps the shooter had a problem with the drug dealers who may have been the actual targets.

Finnell also questioned how the group she described as the “Sanford girls” which lost the fight at the gas station would have known where to find Burson and Bates, who were part of the “Keech Street girls” group.

“How would anyone at the Shell station know where to find these girls?” Finnell asked.

Finnell said one of the witnesses for the prosecution initially said she had not seen Poindexter with a gun that night. But she changed her story after police pressured her, Finnell said. Finnell said jurors should pay attention to evidence about the .380-caliber gun which was also used in the shooting and which did not belong to Poindexter. The rifle with the laser scope was never found.

<p>The trial of a former bouncer accused of first-degree murder began Tuesday with a prosecutor saying the man, from a hidden spot, trained a laser on is intended victims before firing an assault-style rifle to kill one woman and injure another. </p><p> Willie Demarcus Poindexter, 24, is charged with first-degree murder and attempted first-degree murder. He is accused of shooting to death Katie Burson and wounding her friend Lashanna Bates, both 24, in the early morning hours of Aug. 11, 2011, as they stood on a Daytona Beach street. </p><p> Burson was the mother of a boy who was 7 years old at the time. Poindexter faces life in prison if convicted in the jury trial which is being presided over by Circuit Judge Frank Marriott. Burson and Bates were among a group of women who earlier had been to the Coliseum nightclub. Poindexter worked as a bouncer at the club, where another group of women had also been partying that night. When the Coliseum closed, both groups wound up at a gas station and started fighting. </p><p> Poindexter was trying to even the score after his friends lost the fight at the gas station, said prosecutor Celeste Gagne. </p><p> “The motive in this case is revenge,” Gagne said. “It's all over a fight between groups of people in which the friends of the defendant's had gotten beat up,” Gagne said. </p><p> Poindexter and another man were dropped off near the apartment where the women were shot. She said Poindexter had with him his pride and joy -- an MP-15-22, a .22-caliber, assault-style rifle. The other man had a .380-caliber pistol. </p><p> Burson, Bates and some other people were standing in front of apartments at 424 S. Keech St. just after 4 a.m. when they noticed a green light. They then heard whizzing sounds, bullets cutting through the air, Gagne said. </p><p> “This defendant Willie Poindexter shot with his rifle in a sniper-like fashion into a crowd of people, killing Katie Burson and injuring her friend Lashanna Bates,” Gagne said. </p><p> Poindexter defense attorney Ann E. Finnell said during her opening statement that Poindexter did not shoot anyone. Finnell said that when the shooting started Burson, Bates and her group were outside talking to a pair of drug dealers from whom someone had bought marijuana. </p><p> She said perhaps the shooter had a problem with the drug dealers who may have been the actual targets. </p><p> Finnell also questioned how the group she described as the “Sanford girls” which lost the fight at the gas station would have known where to find Burson and Bates, who were part of the “Keech Street girls” group. </p><p> “How would anyone at the Shell station know where to find these girls?” Finnell asked. </p><p> Finnell said one of the witnesses for the prosecution initially said she had not seen Poindexter with a gun that night. But she changed her story after police pressured her, Finnell said. Finnell said jurors should pay attention to evidence about the .380-caliber gun which was also used in the shooting and which did not belong to Poindexter. The rifle with the laser scope was never found.</p>